Special Report
Special Education

New Mexico’s Graduation Rate Is 70 Percent Overall, 60 Percent for Students With Disabilities

May 29, 2015 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Download Education Week‘s Exclusive State Report

The 10th edition of Education Week‘s annual Diplomas Count report—Next Steps: Life After Special Education—examines the experiences of students with disabilities as they make the transition from high school to postsecondary education, the workplace, and adult life. Diplomas Count 2015 analyzes state and national data to sketch a portrait of this population, which comprises about 3 million secondary-school-aged students nationwide. The report examines this group’s achievement levels, discipline rates, graduation and completion rates, and postsecondary outcomes.

New Mexico is home to 18,776 secondary students with disabilities. The majority of these students (75.9 percent) spend at least 40 percent of the day in regular classrooms alongside peers without disabilities.

BRIC ARCHIVE

Despite a trend toward such “mainstreaming,” secondary students with disabilities fare differently than their peers both nationwide and within states on a wide range of educational indicators.

For example, students with disabilities are more likely to face disciplinary measures. Nationwide, 18 percent of secondary students in special education programs were suspended in 2011-12 school year, compared with 9 percent of students without disabilities, according to U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights data analyzed by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California-Los Angeles. In New Mexico, 19 percent of students with disabilities were suspended, while this was true for only 11.9 percent of students without disabilities.

From 2006 to 2013, Diplomas Count featured the Education Week Research Center’s comprehensive original analysis of high school completion using a proprietary method for calculating graduation rates known as the Cumulative Promotion Index. For the second year in a row, the federal data used for the center’s original analysis was unavailable.

This year, for the first time, Diplomas Count uses as its primary data source the U.S. Department of Education’s Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR), the method states are required to use for federal accountability purposes.

For the class of 2013, the most recent year available for the federal metric, the nation’s overall graduation rate reached 81 percent, although students with disabilities lagged 19 percentage points behind. In New Mexico, 70 percent of the class of 2013 graduated with a diploma. Special education students in the state graduated at a rate of 60 percent, trailing their peers by 10 points.

The New Mexico graduation brief contains additional state and national data on graduation trends and student subgroup performance.

Download Graduation Brief (PDF) View more 2015 briefs on states and the nation >

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Special Education Video Inside an Inclusive Classroom: How Two Teachers Work Together
This model for inclusive education benefits students of all abilities, and the teachers instructing them.
1 min read
Special Education Using Technology for Students in Special Education: What the Feds Want Schools to Know
Assistive technology can improve outcomes for students in special education, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
4 min read
Black students using laptop in the lab with white female teacher- including a female student with special needs.
E+/Getty
Special Education Q&A Schools Should Boost Inclusion of Students With Disabilities, Special Olympics Leader Says
Schools have work to do to ensure students with intellectual and developmental disabilities feel a sense of belonging, Tim Shriver said.
6 min read
Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver greets a child at one of the organization’s events.
Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver greets a child at one of the organization’s events.
Courtesy of Special Olympics
Special Education Spotlight Spotlight on the Science of Reading for Students with Disabilities
This Spotlight will empower you with strategies to apply the science of reading to support students with learning differences and more.